Peter Leeson on Witch Trials and Human Sacrifice

During the 16th century, Europe experienced a wave of witchcraft trials that has captured our imagination, and much scholarly attention, up until the present era. But the “wave” of witchcraft trials was not geographically uniform. Hayek Program Senior Fellow Peter Leeson focuses the lens of rational choice theory to explain the occurrence, duration, and geographic distribution of this seemingly irrational phenomenon. Leeson also explores an even stranger social trend — human sacrifice — using the basic tools of microeconomics.